Automotive vehicles are increasingly being equipped with collision avoidance and warning systems for predicting a high probability collision event with an object, such as another vehicle or a pedestrian. Upon detecting a potential collision event, such systems typically initiate safety-related countermeasure actions to avoid the collision and/or provide a warning to the vehicle operator. The ability to accurately predict a potential upcoming collision also enables a vehicle controller to evoke an appropriate safety-related countermeasure, such as initiate an avoidance chassis action (e.g., steer, brake and/or throttle) and/or deploy safety-related devices and/or deploy a warning signal to notify the vehicle operator of a predicted collision with an object.
Video image tracking systems have also been proposed for use on vehicles for tracking the face, including the eyes, of the driver to allow for determination of various facial characteristics of the driver including position, orientation, and movement of the driver's eyes, face, and head. By knowing the driver's facial characteristics, such as the driver's eye gaze, ocular data, head position, and other characteristics, vehicle control systems can provide enhanced vehicle functions. For example, vehicle control systems can advise the driver of driver distraction, driver inattention, or other drowsy driver situations.
Conventional collision warning/avoidance systems are generally considered an integration of an object tracking system comprised of an active detection sensor, such as a radar or lidar, in order to detect objects and provide estimates of their kinematic parameters (e.g., range, speed, and angle), and a threat determination and response system to assess a level of threat and determine the composition of safety-related countermeasures to be present to the driver. The response time initiation and composition of the appropriate safety-related countermeasure is highly dependent on the situational awareness of the driver. As such, in such a system implementation, there may exist errors in when the warning is provided and providing a warning level that is appropriate to the situational awareness of thedriver of the vehicle. When the driver is attentive, conventional collision warning systems may be perceived to provide excessive false warnings/alarms which may result in the driver disregarding warnings that are given. Contrarily, any resultant delays in reaction caused by driver unawareness of an associated risk may put the driver and other vehicle passengers at greater risk.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide for a system that can determine the awareness of the driver to the surrounding environment and can enhance the performance delivered with a collision warning system. In particular, it is desirable to provide for an integrated system that minimizes false warnings/alarms that may be provided to a driver, particularly for use in a vehicle collision warning system.